KEY POINTS:
What is genuine vodka? The answer, much to the relief of Britain's £1.8 billion ($4.7 billion) vodka industry, is a clear spirit which can be made from stuff other than potatoes or cereals.
A potential European vodka war was averted yesterday when an attempt to restrict the name "vodka" to a spirit made only from tubers or grains was rejected by the European Parliament.
The measure, proposed by vodka producers in Scandinavia and Poland would have been a significant blow to British distillers, who make use of additional ingredients, such as sugar beet, and are now the second largest vodka producers in Europe.
Instead, the latest in a long line of Euro-wrangles over food and drink definitions, from chocolate to feta cheese, was resolved by an agreement that any ingredients beyond potatoes and cereals used to make a vodka would be listed on the label.
The compromise, passed by Euro MPs in Brussels, ends a 10-year squabble over the definition of the colourless firewater, which amounts to a £7 billion ($18.3 billion) market across Europe.
The vodka industry has seen steady growth as a base in cocktails and flavoured drinks. Vodka has recently overtaken whisky as the biggest-selling spirit in Britain.
But amid intense competition between British-owned brands, such as Diageo's Smirnoff, and rival producers in Finland, Sweden and Poland for a share of the market, proponents of a ban on vodka not made solely from potatoes or grain said it was vital to protect it as a European product.
Vodka connoisseurs insist there is difference in taste between vodka made from the two "traditional" ingredients and those made with additional products.
One Finnish producer, Shaman Spirits, said: "Vodka is a very clean alcohol and must be kept that way. If somebody wants to make it differently, let them find another name for it."
About one third of the vodka made in Britain, which makes about 43 million litres a year, contains alcohol derived from other agricultural products such as sugar beet or cane sugar.
But while a vodka war may have been avoided, it seems several skirmishes remain, especially over labelling. Edwin Atkinson, director of the UK's Gin and Vodka Association, said: "We don't yet know the cost and legal implications. Some producers change the base ingredient according to cost - one week it will be sugar beet, another week it might be cane sugar. How do you reflect that in labelling?"
- INDEPENDENT
